Agriculture and Its Needs 15 



avoid the cost of walks and pavements and 

 sewers and electric lights. It is all natural 

 enough, and only proves that the farmer 

 is likely to be happier, and other people 

 happier too, when he makes his farm an at- 

 tractive and productive place and lives 

 upon it. During my residence in Illinois, 

 the farm lands in all the region advanced in 

 price from about $60 to about $200 per 

 acre. The regular crops of corn and oats 

 make very sure returns of eight or ten per 

 cent upon the latter valuation. The farm- 

 ers are rational, and intense about making 

 money, and all have bank accounts. But 

 you do not have to get as much income out 

 of land that you can buy for $25 per acre, 

 as out of land that is worth $200 per acre, 

 in order to make it pay ; and the farm houses 

 and their conveniences and connections are 

 no better there than here. In New York, 

 above almost any other state in the Union 



